Undocumented Immigrants' State and Local Tax Contributions

In the public debates over federal immigration reform, sufficient and accurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants is often lacking. The reality is the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States pay billions of dollars in local, state and federal taxes, and their tax contributions would increase under immigration policy reform.

In November 2014, President Obama used his executive authority to announce that he would allow up to 4 million undocumented immigrants to apply for temporary reprieve from deportation and a three-year, renewable work permit. His action also built on his 2012 grant of this relief to 1.2 million undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children (up to 300,000 new undocumented immigrants are newly eligible under the 2014 action). Eligible individuals must either be parents of US citizens or lawful permanent residents and have resided in the United States for more than five years or be youth who have lived continuously in the United States since 2010, be at least 15 years old, and either be enrolled in school or have a high school degree or its equivalent. All told, up to 5.2 million undocumented immigrants could benefit from the president's executive actions taken in 2012 and 2014.

This report provides state-by-state and national estimates on current state and local tax contributions of
the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States as of 2012, the increase in contributions if all 11.4 million were granted lawful permanent residence, and the increase in contributions of the 5.2 million undocumented immigrants directly affected by President Obama's executive actions in 2012 and 2014.